This month, West Lancs Conservatives proudly boast that they are putting the “heart back into Tanhouse” with the rather nasty inference that it wasn’t there before and that it can only be returned with charity and a donation from the Conservative Association (read: a very small slice of Lord Ashcroft’s millions).
Tanhouse, it seems, can be fixed by the Conservative Parliamentary candidate waltzing in with a paint roller and single handedly whitewashing the community centre – as seen in their promo picture.
Their condescending, head-patting, “aren’t we being nice to you poor Scousers” tone is exactly the kind of patronising crap that many of their councillors come out with and which Paul Cotterill has pointed out on numerous occasions over at the Bickerstaffe Record.
They say that the donation from the Conservatives helped renovate “an area of open space to provide a nicer environment for the people of Tanhouse” (my emphasis).
Oh yes, and after you’ve finished painting this wall, you can get back to making Jam and singing Jerusalem in the knowledge that Tanhouse is fixed and you can get on with more important things.
No. The problems across Tanhouse and more widely Skelmersdale, will not be fixed by the occasional community get-together painting walls. It might help a little bit, but the problems run much deeper than a couple of walls with grafitti.
The Tories have been in control of West Lancashire (and therefore Skem) for most of the past quarter century since West Lancs Council was formed. Great strides were made in the late nineties when Labour ran the council and started to address the problems, but these have been undone by the Tories. Reduction of cleaning services and grounds maintenance leaving many communal areas overgrown and shoddy. The closure of cash offices for rent payment, denial of free swimming for under 18s, the lack of public transport and the blinkered focus on commerce instead of community to regenerate the town.
Perhaps, if the Tory controlled Council did their job and cleaned up in the first place, there would be a better civic pride in the area; and perhaps, if the Tory controlled Council cleaned up grafitti then this kind of stunt wouldn’t be necessary.
Obviously, this stunt is about votes. Local Tories know that they can mobilise their support across the constituency – but a big Labour turnout in Skelmersdale will make it difficult for them to win.
If they treated the people of Skelmersdale with some respect, at the very least granting them the same level of services as enjoyed in other parts of the Borough, then that respect would be reciprocated one way or another in the ballot box. Instead they treat the townsfolk as second-class citizens, not deserving of good Council services but instead reliant upon charitable handouts – from the Tories, no less.